74 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



sliininfr, pitcliy black. Plant bright green, the leaves sometimes 

 turning puri)lish or red in autumn. The much larger fruit is sufhcient 

 to distinguish small specimens of l\ mite from large ones of P. minus. 



Lax-flowered Persicaria. 



Gei-man, Milder Knoterich. 



SPECIES X— POLYGONUM PERSICARIA. Linn. 



Plates MCCXXXVII. MCCXXXVIII. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 10G3. 



Annual. Stem erect or ascending, sometimes geniculate and rooting 

 at the very base, more or less swollen at the nodes, branched. Leaves 

 shortly stalked, elliptical or lanceolate-elliptical. Ochrea3 rather loose, 

 all strongly fringed with rather short weak bristles. Spikes oblong or 

 cylindrical, solitary or in pairs at the extremity of the stem and 

 branches, racemose or racemoso-paniculate, short, dense, thick, con- 

 tiguous, or more rarely elongate, and rather thin, lax at the 

 base, sometimes leafless or with a single leaf at the base, straight, erect 

 or slightly drooping. Peduncles glabrous, rarely with a few incon- 

 spicuous glands ; pedicels shorter than or equalling the imt, articulated 

 immediately below the perianth, without glands. Perianth coloured, 

 without glands, or with a very few minute ones, generally without pro- 

 minent veins. Stamens 6. Styles 2 or 3, combined half-way up. Nut 

 rather longer than the perianth; those of the 2 -styled flowers ovate- 

 roundish, plano-convex, very finely shagreened, shining; those of the 

 3-styled flowers bluntly trigonous, not compressed, with the 3 faces 

 round; sometimes all the flowers 2-styled and with flat nuts. Leaves 

 with minute dots, but no superficial glands ; ochrete not glandular. 



Var. a, genuinum. 

 Plate MCCXXXVII. 



Stem slightly enlarged at the nodes. Ochreas rather tight. Spikes 

 not agglomerated even when young; in fruit oblong, short, dense. 

 Pedicels shorter than the nut. 



Var. 3, datum. Gren. and Godr. 



Plate MCCXXXVIII. 



P. bi forme, WaU. Fries, Mant. ii. p. 28. 



P. nodosum, Pers., Meisn. in B.C. Prod. Vol. XIV. p. 118 (?) (Excl. Syn.): 



Stem generally enlarged at the nodes. Ochrea) loose. Spikes when 

 young agglomerated into a thyrsus ; in fruit cylindrical, elongate, 



